The Consistory Court of Oxford diocese has granted All Saints’, Dunsden, a faculty to install a new window to commemorate the First Word War poet Wilfred Owen (1893-1918), who had had connections with the church and the village.

All Saints’ is an attractive but unlisted village church, and the unopposed online faculty application was made by the Rector and the churchwarden. Owen lived in the village from 1911 to 1913, having come to Dunsden to act as lay assistant to the Vicar of All Saints’ at that time, the Revd Hubert Wigan. Both Owen’s parents and his sister are buried in the churchyard.

The proposed location for the new window is an existing single lancet window in the nave, facing south and next but one to the chancel. It is near to a memorial plaque that was dedicated to Owen in 1978 by the then Bishop of Oxford in the presence of the then Poet Laureate, Ted Hughes. The existing window is to be dismantled and removed, and the glass retained for future use.

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Wilfred Owen commemorative window to be installed in Oxford church https://t.co/0yF3rGF4TP

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) July 14, 2023

The Church of England has taken note. This week, a proposal suggested by members of the Blackburn diocese to trial waiving the statutory fees for couples planning a church wedding (up to £641), was voted through by the General Synod. “While everyone likes the principle of free weddings, there is understandable anxiety about the unknown effect on church finances of doing so: the amendment to authorise a regional trial means we can allay those concerns,” pointed out the Rev Tom Woolford, who originally raised the issue.

The Blackburn diocese cited a 50 per cent fall in Church of England weddings over two decades. Whether saving £641 if you marry in a church away from where you both live, or £539 if you marry in your home parish, on a day that, on average, costs £18,400, will encourage tens of thousands of couples to flock to churches remains to be seen.

“I’m hoping and praying the trial goes really well and we can bring a motion for the full abolition of wedding fees in due course,” the Rev Woolford said. The Archbishop of York, the Most Rev Stephen Cottrell, described it as “a chance for us to do something which I believe could be really good for us, good for our soul”.

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🔴 The General Synod has waived statutory fees – but will the new tactic work?https://t.co/GoAB1QjEdn

— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) July 13, 2023

Something clicked for Marlena Bhame when she first stepped into Liquid Church about four years ago. She’d been searching for something more spiritually dynamic and meaningful than the faith tradition she’d grown up in, or the various others she had tried out over the years.

When Bhame, who was raised in the evangelical Christian and Missionary Alliance tradition, arrived at the church in Parsippany, N.J., she was immediately struck by a feeling of belonging. The congregation mostly looked like her — a lot of millennials and Gen Z — and everyone seemed enthusiastic about being there.

“I was blown away by the amount of young people,” she says.

Liquid Church has helped Bhame, 28, and others like her find meaning even as many in her generation have turned away from organized religion. It is one of about 1,800 “megachurches” in the United States — defined as having 2,000 or more members. At a time when empty pews are forcing churches across the country to shutter, these mostly nondenominational houses of worship are largely bucking that trend — attracting younger, more vibrant and more diverse congregations.

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After the pandemic, small churches are struggling, but megachurches are expanding. And increasingly incorporating digital worship offerings. Smart phones are becoming "absolutely vital"https://t.co/Arzp4wp6qD

— Daniel Cox (@dcoxpolls) July 14, 2023

The Hollywood actors’ union approved a strike on Thursday for the first time in 43 years, bringing the $134 billion American movie and television business to a halt over anger about pay and fears of a tech-dominated future.

The leaders of SAG-AFTRA, the union representing 160,000 television and movie actors, announced the strike after negotiations with studios over a new contract collapsed, with streaming services and artificial intelligence at the center of the standoff. On Friday, the actors will join screenwriters, who walked off the job in May, on picket lines in New York, Los Angeles and the dozens of other American cities where scripted shows and movies are made.

Actors and screenwriters had not been on strike at the same time since 1960, when Marilyn Monroe was still starring in films and Ronald Reagan was the head of the actors’ union. Dual strikes pit more than 170,000 workers against old-line studios like Disney, Universal, Sony and Paramount, as well tech juggernauts like Netflix, Amazon and Apple.

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Breaking News: TV and movie actors are going on strike, joining Hollywood screenwriters and effectively bringing the entertainment industry to a standstill. https://t.co/QxBXrDR09t

— The New York Times (@nytimes) July 13, 2023

O Lord Jesus Christ, Who knowest the Father, even as Thou art known of Him, lead us onward evermore in the knowledge of Thee Who art the truth, till at last we see Thy face, and know Thee as we are known of Thee; Who with ;he Father and the Holy Ghost livest and reignest, one God for ever and ever.

–Frederick B. Macnutt, The prayer manual for private devotions or public use on divers occasions: Compiled from all sources ancient, medieval, and modern (A.R. Mowbray, 1951)

pic.twitter.com/SvBn9tOX8d

— Irena Buzarewicz (@IrenaBuzarewicz) July 14, 2023

I keep the Lord always before me;
because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.

Therefore my heart is glad, and my soul rejoices;
my body also dwells secure.
For thou dost not give me up to Sheol,
or let thy godly one see the Pit.

Thou dost show me the path of life;
in thy presence there is fulness of joy,
in thy right hand are pleasures for evermore.

–Psalm 16:8-11

If you hear a duet sung by a pair of these awesome Black-headed Gonoleks, it’s often so well synchronised that it sounds like a single bird! Photographed @UmusambiV in #Kigali #Rwanda #RwOT #BirdsSeenIn2023 #TwitterNatureCommunity #VisitRwanda pic.twitter.com/yW1ZIdkfIL

— Will Wilson (@2wsphotography) July 14, 2023